Home invasion in Gravenhurst leads to 3 men being charged with assault, break & enter

GRAVENHURST — Another wild home invasion in downtown Gravenhurst has left a father and son shaken — and three men charged.

The home invasion took place in the upstairs back apartment #2 above Prospects Antiques & Sports Cards and Collectibles. The building is owned by the Bush family.

Joe and Rob Couling fought a pitched battle with three men who broke into their apartment above the Prospects Antiques & Sport Card shop on main street Thursday night.

The father and son were home at when the plywood door to their second floor apartment #2 overlooking the the back alley of Muskoka Road was smashed wide open and the assailants busted in.

Two of those charged were known to the father and son, who the father said they had had run-ins with in the past

Police say that on March 20, 2014, at approximately 11 p.m. three men entered the residence in Gravenhurst.

The two residents inside the Gravenhurst home heard the suspects entering and confronted them. After a short altercation — of “about 15 minutes,” said Joe Couling, the suspects fled down the back stairs into the alley behind the main street store.

Couling and his son suffered minor injuries requiring a few stitches at hospital as a result of the brief altercation, but nothing was taken from the residence, say police.

A new $10 cedar back door from the ReStore has replaced the plywood door that was smashed in Thursday night.

The building is owned by the Bush family, who once had a pharmacy in the storefront, and a dentist upstairs decades ago.

The Coulings called 911 and police responded right away with the Emergency Response Team (ERT), a K-9 officer, and Bracebridge OPP members searched the area for the suspects.

Joe Couling told CTV news he had one of them in a headlock and his son – a bodybuilder who is listed on Facebook as a a former GHS student and owner of Bodybuilding Team Storm – stabbed the intruder with a kitchen knife.

CTV said Rob posted briefly on his website that he “… punched and stabbed them good….”

Prospects owner Marty Saar – whose late wife Sonja Hagen just died Feb. 7 at age 71 - says he didn’t know what happened until he came into work the next morning and one of the victims said “he was going to get stitches.”

Police say the three suspects were located through police investigation by the Muskoka Crime Unit, the Community Drug Action Team, and members of the Bracebridge OPP detachment. The males have been charged with:

CC 266 Assault

CC 348(1)(b) Break, Enter dwelling house – commit indictable offence.

Police did not disclose the names of those charged, and CTV says they were charged and released.

A similar home invasion occurred in 2013 a few blocks away at Hotchkiss and Sarah streets.

Short URL: http://www.muskokatodaily.com/?p=18238

Posted by Mark
on Mar 22 2014. Filed under Headlines.
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